Ascended Rite
by Tempis Fugit
Summary: A new power comes to the aid of Atlantis, and to heal the rift in Johns' heart. Serious SLASH eventually.
1. Chapter 1

_**Ascended Rite**_

To my eternal shame, I do not own Stargate Atlantis or the designs for Sovereign class starships (star trek). But the idea for the story is mine so enjoy…

"The hull isn't going to take another hit; we need to get into space and through the damn gate!" McKay shouted at Sheppard as he used the jumper to avoid a hit from another wraith dart. The sensors were showing 7 of them in close proximity. It has been an ordinary mission, SGA-1 went through a space gate to check out a planet for potential ZPM's when they had been ambushed by a group of darts. John had taken out a few but luck and drones were running out fast. He made the small ship ascend fast and saw 2 darts bearing down on him. John Sheppard knew he was going to die, and prepared himself for the final blow…but it never came, instead, an orange beam appeared out of nowhere and blew through both darts, piercing two at once.

"What was that?" Teyla exclaimed, having seen the explosions through the window. A sleek, grey ship about the size of a puddle jumped emerged from a cloud with two other identical vessels, the lead ship fired another orange beam and took out another dart.

"Atlantean vessel, this is the shuttlecraft Geronimo. We will deal with these ships, get into space and await further assistance. Do not make a run for the stargate, there are three hive ships surrounding it," a voice said over the comm. Channel. The wraith began firing on the unknown ships, but a blue energy field surrounded the ships, stopping the energy bolts from hitting the vessel.

"Who was that, and how did they know this is an Atlantean ship?" Sheppard asked the group in general, Ronan, Teyla and Rodney were too bewildered to even think about it.

"Roger that Geronimo, we'll make our ascent as quickly as possible," Sheppard replied, opening the channel. The little ship rose quickly and soon the three 'shuttles' moved into formation around the jumper, forming a defensive perimeter. The 4 ships quickly broke the atmosphere and launched into space.

"Atlantean vessel, we will escort you to our starship, the Crimson Sunrise. Captain Mathos will be eager to meet you." The voice, once again, coming over the speakers.

"Acknowledged Geronimo, we'll follow your lead." John said gratefully over the speakers, glad they weren't becoming charred roast quite yet.

The Crimson Sunrise was hidden in a polar orbit, away from prying wraith sensors. A magnificent ship in John's eyes, and you could hear everyone else in the cockpit gasp in awe. The ship was huge, several hundred meters long and very sleek, two nacelles extending from pylon attached to the aft hull of the ship.

"I've never seen anything like that, although there are legends of a great white bird coming down from the heavens, eradicating wraith in mid-culling," Teyla said. Large doors opened at the rear of the forward section and a blue beam engulfed the jumped, guiding her into the landing bay.

"A tractor beam!" McKay said mounting excitement. Within 20 seconds, the ship had landed in a large room, a couple more of those shuttlecraft sitting close by; picking up his weapon, John made his way to the hatch and opened it.

"Welcome to the Crimson Sunrise, I am Captain Roz Mathos, commander of this vessel. We came to this world after detecting an Atlantean power source; on closer inspection we discovered it was your ship. I must admit, my crew and I were shocked to find you, we have looked for others of our kind for a century with no results." Said a boy, or a man, John wasn't sure. He was tallish, black hair, looked around 17 with piercing grey eyes and a very attractive face. He wore clothes different to the two guards behind him, his clothes somewhat similar to Ronan's. Tight, sleeveless top and leather trousers that fit in all the right places. He also wore a black jacket that hugged his figure admirably and on the collar diamond shaped pip was shown, the same worn as the captain of the Aurora.

John and his team exchanged glances and John said,

"I'm John Sheppard; this is Teyla Emmagen, Ronan Dex and Rodney McKay. We're not actually ancients. We call you ancients because, well, to us, you are a race long gone from our galaxy and this one. Only McKay and I are from Earth, Teyla and Ronan are natives to this galaxy." Roz looked shocked at the news that John and his team were not actually ancients.

"Then how did you come to be in this galaxy if my people are gone?" Roz asked, he motioned them to follow him and he walked out of the landing bay. The Crimson Sunrise was an amazing starship, neat, clean lines, more advanced than anything the ancients had come up with, well, other ancients.

"We came to Atlantis nearly 3 years ago from Earth through the Stargate." John said, walking in step with Roz, they entered some kind of lift which, after a few seconds, opened up into a room with a large table and chairs around it. Roz motioned for the team to sit and the guards to leave.

"Atlantis! It still stands after all this time? 10 thousand years have passed since I walked within those walls, tell me, where is the city of my birth. We went to the world it rested on only to find the city gone and the system crawling with wraith." Roz looked amazed, his eyes shone. John felt very attracted to the person sitting next to him, he reminded John of a younger John, even though Roz was over 10 thousand years old.

"Yes, there was mention of Atlantis moving from one planet to the one it's on now. The city is about 67000 light years from here." McKay said, piping up for the first time since they had landed.

"Tell me, you are an ancient correct? This ship is nothing like the Atlantean vessels we have encountered." McKay said, sounding a tad suspicious.

"You are correct to be suspicious, but I assure you, we've had nearly ten thousand years, thanks to RNA re-sequencing, to rethink how we designed and built ships, this is the culmination of millennia's work. The Crimson Sunrise is the only ship we have, and she is also the newest." Roz replied, quite happy to tell the team what they wanted to know.

"Now, I'll arrange quarters for you here aboard Crimson, and if you give us the exact co-ordinates of Atlantis, in an hour, my crew and I will see home for the first time in 10 thousand years." Roz said.

Rodney gave the Crimson's helm officer the co-ordinates of Atlantis and the ship jumped to FTL speed without the wraith seeing or hearing anything.

"So tell me, have you encountered any others of my kind in you travels through this galaxy. I knew a lot of people of Atlantis, finding some would be amazing beyond words," Roz said, they were once again in the briefing room, Sheppard looked out at the stars flashing past as Teyla answered for once,

"We have encountered one true ancient and two of your warships on our travels. We found the Aurora adrift in space and another vessel on a planet next to an ancient outpost."

"The Aurora? I was on that ship for a month while she was being finished, I heard she was lost with all hands, it, like every other loss we suffered, was a tragedy for those on Atlantis," Roz said mournfully.

"I spoke to the captain, he and his crew and been in stasis for 10000 years and were trying to modify their hyperdrive in order to return to Atlantis with a weakness in Wraith technology, unfortunately they never finished the modifications and we had to destroy the ship to destroy two wraith cruisers and prevent our existence on Atlantis becoming known to the Wraith again. As far as they know, or KNEW anyway, we had destroyed the city along with everyone in it," Sheppard said, catching up with the conversation. Watching Roz, John felt something stirring in him that he hadn't felt for 5 years, not since Mikey had died in a plane crash in Iran, his heart clenched tightly when he thought of his old lover, tall, blonde, handsome. John had been so madly in love with him he was destroyed when Mikey's jet had been shot down by that missile. Sheppard was open to his team, Elizabeth and Carson about him being gay, but hadn't dared tell anyone else for fear that the Air Force might find out. Even in Atlantis they could find a way to reach him, perhaps via the Deadalus as it shipped him home for a court martial.

"Well should they come to Atlantis looking for trouble, I assure you John, the Crimson Sunrise is more than capable of taking on up to 8 Wraith hive ships simultaneously," Roz said, watching for the shine in Johns' eyes to brighten, and brighten they did.

"8 ships! You really have advanced in 10 millennia!" Rodney squealed happily, a thousand questions buzzing in his head.

"Captain, we are approaching Atlantis." The helmsman reported over the comm.

"Very well, take us out of light speed and drop to half impulse," Roz replied. SGA-1 and Roz stood and walked out onto the bridge, the planet which Atlantis rested on lay before them.

"Open a channel once you find the city," Roz said to another officer, possible the comm. Officer.

"This is Doctor Elizabeth Weir, who are you?" Elizabeth's face appeared on the large screen at the front of the bridge.

"I am Captain Roz Mathos of the Atlantean warship Crimson Sunrise. I have your team aboard and would like permission to land." Roz replied, turning to John.

"Elizabeth let them land, they're ancients!" John said, trying to be convincing.

"I'm sorry John, but I will not let an unknown vessel land on Atlantis, even if they claim to be Ancients, we have been tricked before," Weir replied.

"That is perfectly understandable Doctor Weir, I will transport down with your team, unarmed and unguarded, but I request that my ship be allowed to enter orbit, I am well aware of Atlantis's defensive capability and would not like to be destroyed, although my ships' defenses are more than adequate to combat 100, 000 drones if they had to. From what I hear Doctor, you don't have nearly that number." Roz said calmly, he knew he'd get on Atlantis one way or another, but these people had brought his home back from the brink of annihilation more than once, it was their home too.

"Very well, your ship may enter orbit and you may transport down with my team, but bring any weapons and measures will be taken to defend ourselves," Weir said, and John had to admit, he was a little scared of Weir when she got like that.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Ascended Rite – Chapter 2**_

Right this is chapter two; I really like this story and would like to continue writing it so please review it!!!!

The first thing Roz saw when he rematerialized in the Atlantis gate room was a gun leveled at his chest and a suspicious Dr. Weir slightly behind the marine holding said gun.

"Why don't we hold our discussion in the briefing room, I'm sure you know the way," Weir said diplomatically.

"Of course Dr. Weir, but I would like permission for my ship to beam down something of great importance to Atlantis," Roz replied, looking around his old home, one that had stood longer than he had by millennia. With a curt nod from Elizabeth he tapped the badge of the chest of his uniform.

"Roz to Crimson, beam down the containers". Three boxes energized in front of Roz in a flash of light. Sheppard opened the first box before Roz got to it, inside, in foam padding, was a ZPM.

"There's one in each box, each fully charged. My ship does not use these as a power source, but by Atlantean law, every battleship must carry at least 2 fully charged power crystals incase of emergencies, like Atlantis suffering a power failure with no spare power crystals, not that it ever happened". Everyone who could see the three ZPM's was shocked. No daring missions or chasing legends, just a simple sentence said and there were now three ZPM's, just waiting to restore Atlantis to her former glory.

"Oh my god, we need to hook these up, having one ZPM is good, but three? The whole city will be open to us!" Rodney squealed.

"Check them over, then link them up, the rest of us will carry on with the meeting," Elizabeth said, trying to restore some calm and order to the situation.

"We were exiled from Atlantis shortly before the city moved planet and fell under siege from the Wraith. The council decided we had become a threat after a group of us were given an experimental RNA resequencing treatment. We were trying to find a way to ascend quickly but never quite succeeded, although we did become super smart, strong, fast, and we showed unique mutations. One third of my crew is telekinetic, that was perhaps the most common mutation. Some of us however, are very unique in terms of mutation. I can control light to do many amazing things and my first officer can teleport from one side of a planet to the other faster than the speed of light. Obviously we are also the victims of immortality, we have stopped aging completely. With this new power some of us became unstable and even violent; those people were destroyed to protect the Atlanteans. The rest of us were shipped off to another planet, we were given everything we needed to sustain ourselves to live comfortably, but, after 5 millennia of silence, we knew the fight for Atlantis had been lost and so we decided to seek retribution. Using our enhanced skills and intellect, we built a ship, the Majestic Flame; she was lost with her crew of two hundred in a battle with a dozen hive ships, although she took most of them with her. There were 3000 of us when we were sent away from our home, now there are 800, all onboard the Crimson Sunrise, we are the last hope of restoring the Atlantean empire that once spanned this galaxy and yours to an extent." Roz said, they had been talking for an hour, Roz was very curious to learn of what had happened during the expedition's time on Atlantis. Of course in return, SGA-1 and DR. Weir were very interested about the ancient's intent now that they were home.

"We are obviously delighted that you have found your lost home, but I have to ask, what now? My people are no match for your ship granted, but we have devoted a lot of time and resources trying to bring this city back to glory, we want to stay here, this is our home now." Sheppard said, almost sentimentally, he couldn't bare the thought of going back to Earth permanently. Atlantis was where his family was, he couldn't lose that.

"Of course I have considered this Colonel, and I completely agree with what you just said, although perhaps not for quite the same reasons." Roz said, a smile playing across his lips, John reminded him so much of Anson, they had been married for 2 years when Anson was killed on his ship, the Hourglass, in a fight with 4 Wraith cruisers, Roz had cried non stop for 5 days before taking his warship, the Gallant Hammer on more than one suicide mission that never quite managed to kill him.

"Please explain what you mean Commander," Teyla said, somewhat confused, Ronan shared the same lost expression.

"You all must understand, the last time I was on Earth, you were nothing more than cavemen who thought fire was magic. You are the children of my race, a legacy which spans 2 galaxies now, this one and yours. I must admit I am so proud that my descendants thrive now. And you have accomplished so much, we thought it would take at least 200 000 years before you were ready to find Atlantis; you did it in 10 millennia. I am simply amazed by each one of you and I can't imagine you leaving Atlantis, you are the reason we built this city and the others like it, as a monument to our kind, a footprint that would last all time." Roz said, he was shocked and amazed that his descendants of his race, who called the Atlanteans the 'ancients', had managed to return to the place of their birth.

"As happy as I am about everything you just said, exactly how many other cities did you build, because we found one but we can't find records of any others," John said, he could use a good new puddle jumper and some new drones would be fun to have.

"We built 4 cities including Atlantis, 2 of which we know were completely destroyed, and we built bases across this galaxy, surely you found some of them?" Roz asked.

"Elizabeth, it's Rodney, I've just plugged in all 3 ZPM's, they should be active…now," Rodney's voice could be heard in the ears of all the occupants of the room, and Roz heard it loud and clear with his super hearing.

"Atlantis," Roz stood and called out clearly. In the middle of the room, the image of a beautiful woman appeared.

"This is the Atlantis AI, she will be able to tell me everything I need to know about what you and your expedition have done since your arrival," Roz said. Not for the first time that day, everyone was stunned.

"Greetings to you all, I have watched you closely since you arrived but unfortunately, I could not reveal myself to you due to lack of power, but now, I will be able to help you in every way I possibly can." Atlantis said, her voice calm and tranquil.

"Wow, Roz you must stop amazing us, we can't keep up with this," Elizabeth said with a huge grin on her face, this young man was turning out to be far more than he appeared. John walked around the table over to Roz, offered his hand and said,

"Welcome home."

_**1 month passes**_

Teyla, Ronan, John and Roz were in the gym, which was actually originally a nursery according to Roz. Roz was in the middle of the mat, blindfolded, with two sticks in his hands. The other three were spread around him, sticks raised, about to strike. Teyla lunged first; bringing her sticks down, Roz dropped his sticks and grabbed a hold of Teyla's. He jumped up and flipped over Teyla, pulling her arms back, he lashed out with his foot and Teyla flew across the room, although she seemed to slow before she hit the ground, landing gently. Anyone who went outside the arena got caught in an anti-grav bubble that surrounded the mats, inside the bubble, gravity, was 1 tenth its norm. Ronan went next, coming in from behind Roz. Roz jumped and flipped back, as he passed over Ronan, his legs wrapped round Ronan's neck and pulled him back too, flipping him backwards. Roz landed on his feet with Ronan's head between his feet. Unfortunately only Ronan's lower half was inside the bubble, so he landed somewhat harder than Teyla. Pushing Ronan completely into the bubble and out of the arena, Roz faced John. John was wearing joggies and an Air Force t-shirt, Roz was once again dressed similar to Ronan, with leather trousers, a tight sleeveless top and arm bands that started at his hands and worked their way up to his muscular biceps, apparently this sex outfit was also a registered uniform in the Atlantean military. Roz smiled broadly and jumped at Sheppard, pushing them both into the field, as they entered the bubble, Roz told Atlantis to deactivate the anti-gravity field, dropping Sheppard like a stone with Roz landing on top of him. Sheppard pulled of Roz's blindfold and looked into his eyes, which were burning a fiery yellow color. John watched as the eyes turned back to their usual color and moved his head up slightly, catching Roz's lips with his own, what became a brush became a kiss, and what was a kiss became an all out war of tongues, with Teyla and Ronan both watching with something similar to the look a 5 year old has when given a bar of chocolate and told Santa isn't real at the same time. Breaking away from the kiss,

"About bloody time we did that!" Sheppard growled. He pushed Roz off him and stood up, reaching for his radio. Before he could call Elizabeth and tell her he was taking the day off to shag Roz senseless, Weir's panicky voice boomed from the radio,

"All senior staff report to the control room!"

"For god sake, can I not have one minute to screw around with someone?" Sheppard sighed while running out of the gym.

"A Wraith battle fleet just dropped out oh hyperspace above the city, we didn't see them until it was too late to cloak!" Weir exclaimed as SGA-1 ran into stargate operations.

"How many ships?" John asked, ready to run to the weapons chair ASAP.

"12 hive ships and their escorts, a total of 48 battleships," Weir said. The ships had stopped less than a light year from Atlantis.

"My ship and the weapons chair can't take that on, we should move the city, if we make it to hyperspace they aren't fast enough to keep up!" Roz said.

"Roz, the Crimson Sunrise is hailing us!" Rodney said, opening the channel. An image of the Crimson's bridge and 1st officer replaced the image of the Wraith fleet.

"Commander, we have detected a large wraith fleet in this star system, you must take Atlantis and leave, we will activate our self destruct and take out as many ships as we can!" Roz went deathly white.

"Absolutely not, our ship is the last hope of the Atlantean people, if you die, so do the hopes for our race. I'm giving you an order to move to FTL speed and head for the Alpha sit immediately!" Roz said, his 1st officer looked as if he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"I'm sorry commander, but we must to what we have to do to preserve Atlantis, you would never make it to hyperspace if the Wraith fleet was intact, we're picking up a dozen more cruisers coming into the system!" The image started to cackle before disappearing altogether.

"Reynar come in. Crimson respond!" Roz shouted into nothingness.

"The Crimson Sunrise is moving between the wraith ships, she is taking a lot of fire from the Wraith, she…she's gone, the Crimson has disappeared from sensors." Rodney said, checking all his reading to be sure.

"43 Wraith ships were destroyed; the other 5 and the dozen on long range sensors are turning about and jumping to hyperspace."

"The last remnants of my people have vanished, this city is all that is left of a people that seeded all life in this galaxy millions of years ago, it is ironic that we were destroyed by that which we created." Roz was quiet, staring into space. John walked over to him and put his arms around the younger man, for that was what he was now. The boy that once stood where Roz was had suddenly passed away with the last of his kind. John led Roz to his quarters where they both curled up on the large bed and cried for the loss that hung so heavily in the air, they cried all day until they simply fell asleep from the exhaustion of crying so many tears.

So there is chapter 2, I hope you liked it. I will do more for this story if you wish but please review it for me!!!!


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